Women desire to hold first, alone
Women's basketball, tied with Michigan Tech for first in the GLIAC, hopes to stand there alone after Saturday's match-up
Maria Schmitt
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Sports
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The Chargers are currently 21-2, 16-2 in the GLIAC.
This weekend the Chargers face their last two away games of the regular season against Northern Michigan today and Michigan Technological University Saturday.
Their win against Wayne State put them in a tied position with Michigan Tech for first place in the GLIAC.
Head coach Claudette Charney said while the team looks forward to the Michigan Tech rematch, they won't look past Thursday's match-up against Northern Michigan.
"We have goals we want to reach," she said. "Northern beat Grand Valley and can shoot a lot of [3-pointers]. We can't allow them to win."
Facing Michigan Tech - one of the Chargers' two losses this season - will be more difficult at Tech's gym.
"It's their last regular season home game," Charney said. "We must play over that."
Not only will it be difficult to beat Michigan Tech, one of the Chargers' only two losses this season, but the outcome will determine who is first in the GLIAC.
"It's a huge game," freshman Chelsea Harrison said. "It decides where the GLIACs will be."
Hillsdale will automatically host one of the three rounds of the GLIAC tournament, as they are first in the South division.
A pink-packed gym met fans at both games, last week as Hillsdale participated in GLIAC's Pink Wave event to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
Hillsdale players wore pink jerseys, which were later auctioned off. Students sold pink T-shirts supporting the fundraiser, and fans participated in 3-point contests at halftime.
Both Wayne and Northwood joined the Chargers in wearing pink Thursday and Saturday night, including pink, knee-high socks and shoelaces.
Saturday's difficult win against Northwood spurred frustration across the court.
A tough Northwood defense and questionable calls by referees forced the Chargers to fight hard for the win.
However, Charney said the team knew the game was going to be difficult.
"We knew it was going to be a war," she said.
Like in earlier games this season, Charney said the team could not let a series of bad calls be the game's deal-breaker.
"The only time it can be really frustrating is when you know the free-throw line disconnect is more than 10 and both teams play similar styles," she said. "We have to adjust to the way the game is called."
Charney said players often have a hard time adjusting to an official's pattern of calls.
Freshman Katie Bildner said bad calls are indeed difficult to deal with.
"We had some pretty bad things happen that didn't get called," she said. "But as hard as it is, you have to forget about it and keep playing. You can't let it stop you or frustrate you more."
The game was an intense back-and-forth fight for points; the scoreboard was tied eight times before the Chargers finally came out on top.
Despite the Timberwolves' strong play the Chargers managed to tally clutch points in the last five minutes of the game.
Junior guard Brooke Knight scored four points in the last five minutes of regulation and four in overtime - two of which were free-throw shots.
A sunk 3-point shot on the buzzer by senior Katie Cezat with 30 seconds left in regulation play also helped the team pull ahead.
Harrison made two free throws in regulation and two in overtime to push the Chargers over the edge, despite the Timberwolves' tendency to get the ball and turn turnovers into transition points.
Two overtime 3-pointers from Harrison and junior Janay Miller helped secure the win as well.
"It wasn't the prettiest, but we pulled through," Bildner said.
Last Thursday's game against Wayne State forced diligence from the Chargers, but they still managed to hold a good lead over the Warriors.
At half time, the Chargers were up by 16 and managed to pull ahead by 30 for the win.
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